Revelations

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1.)  Roads are everywhere.

"There is no spot in the lower 48 of the United States more than 22 miles from the nearest road, outside of some unbuildable swampland in southern Louisiana" (Seiler, p.6).

To me, the essence of "wild" places is a sense of isolation. Given that you can't go more than 22 miles without hitting a road, how isolated can any one place be? It really makes the world seem small. If you find someplace that seems wild, you know it is not bounded by an ocean or a continent, but merely a road, which is probably only just out of sight. 

2.) The roadways are authoritarian.

"The increase in levels and vantages of surveillance... in public space and the suspension of various rights to mobile privacy... are symptoms, perhaps, of the republic of drivers' evolution" (Lutz, p.151).

We take for granted that the roadways are authoritarian. We just accept police "checkpoints" as part of the road experience. Furthermore, this road authority primarily threatens us with monetary penalties, such as fines. Somehow, it is natural that we could get a speeding ticket at any time. Really, being on the road is the primary place I encounter law enforcement. On the roads, I'm not in public space, I'm in police space.

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3.)  We are remarkably unaware of a majority of the components that make our car-centered culture work.

"With remarkable near invisibility, the gas arrives at those stations via hundreds of thousands of miles of pipeline, and a vast fleet of tanker trucks supply the roads daily to make delivery" (Lutz, p.5).

Sure, drilling for oil is bad, and so is spilling it in the ocean, not to mention burning it. But, most people don't even know the half of what it means to be so dependent upon gasoline. We don't even think of the carbon footprint of the trucks that transport that fuel. We don't think about the materials, the right of way issues, the cost or the unsightliness of those gas pipelines. Most of our culture of automobility is neatly tucked away out of sight, and out of mind.

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 4.)  We don't buy cars with reason.

"We become attracted to a class of car or a brand because of the 'soft' or emotional appeal of its marketed image; then we use the hard information available to us not to evaluate or test our decision to buy that brand but to rationalize it" (Lutz, p.41)

We are seduced into somehow letting our cars be mediums for our own personal values. We buy sports cars because we want to portray ourselves as cool or wealthy, not because we want good gas mileage. Then, we tell ourselves that it's ok that the Corvette doesn't get great mileage, because it sure does have a lot of horsepower, and those are the sacrifices you need to make for torque. Interestingly, the values we try to portray through our cars, such as vanity, are often frivolous. We are sold not on practicality, but rather on romanticism.

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 5.)  We equate mobility with personal freedom.

"Mobility is ostensibly a universal right" and "it's true goal is not mobility as such; it is access to people and facilities" (Seiler, p.26).

By mobility, we really mean our ability for autonomy. You are not free if you are not mobile. Almost by definition, if you can't move, you are stuck, and stuck is the opposite of free. Our society is highly mobile, because almost everyone has access to a car- that is, to a greater capacity for freedom. If we had great public transportation, but little access to cars, we would not say we are so mobile, as we would have less autonomy. We would not consider ourselves very mobile if we could only travel at the mercy of bus and train schedules and routes.

           

6.)  Our car-centric system of values dictates how we view the actions of others.

"Perhaps they are ashamed to put in a garden- afraid the neighbors might take it as a sign that they are too poor to go to the supermarket" (Kunstler, p.249).

In our car-centric society, not being able to drive is seen as a sign of being lower class, and is coupled to our idea of mobility as freedom. The higher class you are, the more freedom you have. Not being able to go to the store is to have less freedom, because you have less ability to move autonomously. We don't even think to value the fact that growing your own food is a great display of autonomy, itself necessarily an example of freedom.

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7.)  We settle for vanity over substance.

"Whatever their purpose- motel, casino,... pizza emporium... they were all just cinder-block sheds, and rather pathetic amid the sprawl. What mattered were the signs attached to them and how dazzling it all looked at night" (Kunstler, p.82)

            Everything is about catching attention, but not necessarily holding on to it.

Because we value mobility so much, we are always on the move. And because we are always on the move, it isn't necessary for things to be substantive, because we only interact with them a short time. These places, motels, casinos, pizza joints, are all just stops, they aren't destinations. The problem is that we start to value these things more, though they actually have less substantive value, because they bolster our ability to be mobile. Because such places give us more mobility, we are replacing our towns, which have a vibe of permanence,  with "strips" of places which not only allow us to be mobile, they require it.

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8.)  Instead of improving drivers, we try to make all their behavior survivable.

"One of the problems with cars is that all drivers are not highly skilled- often they are even drunk- and accidents happen. So to remove some of the danger that drivers pose, highway engineers have developed a standard perfect modern suburban street... at least thirty-six feet wide- same as a county highway" (Kunstler, p.49-50)

Cars are necessary for everyday life in this age. Not having a car is tantamount to being a lower-class citizen. Since everyone depends on cars, it would create a huge hassle if only a minority of them could actually operate vehicles. Therefore, we let just about anyone drive, so long as they can afford to. Instead of making it harder to get a license, or requiring more training, we simply make roads which can better accommodate less-skilled drivers. Our value of personal freedom is shockingly higher than that of personal safety.

    

9.)  Despite viewing mobility as freedom, and having great opportunities for mobility, we are no happier for it.

"Importantly, people with longer commutes report 'lower satisfaction with life' than those with short commutes- that is, they are simply less happy. These commuters' spouses are also unhappy" (Lutz, p.165).

            Despite how much we value mobility and freedom, driving just doesn't make 

            us happier. I think this is precisely because everyday life now requires us to

            drive. Because we are losing our towns to strips of flashy convince- based

            businesses, we have to deal with the roadways and their many inconviences.

            We can't just go to the corner store, we have to drive out in traffic to places

            not connected with anything. Perhaps the reality of mobility isn't freedom at

            all.

10.)  Cars aren't at the root of the problem, we are.

"Bob Yaro, since departed from his new job with the NYRPA, offered this final assessment in a phone interview: 'When they come to chronicle the decline of this civilization,' he said, 'they're going to wonder why were debating flag burning, abortion, and broccoli eating instead of the fundamental issues of how we live and use the environment" (Kunstler, p.267).

"Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune...

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;           

I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go;           

I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;           

I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)"

-Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road"

It is not about cars or the impact that their use had. It is about what we did as people. The problems of automobility exist only as long as we continue to perpetuate them. Any problem with cars or automobility is really a problem with ourselves, as cars exist only so long as we continue to make and use them. I have included a video of a klein bottle for this last revelation to illustrate this point; how the problems of automobility we see around ourselves start within ourselves.